The Best Bonding is Done by Camping
by SPY464
Summary: Thanks to a certain ginger-haired boy, some of the Zexal cast are going on a camping trip. Who knows what adventures and/or romance may await them? [Keyshipping, Anxietyshipping, Oldersiblingshipping, Gorgonicshipping, Hellsharkshipping, and probably others? Rated for cusssing, Edited by TheScoundrelCookie]
1. Chapter 1: Let the Trip Begin

**A/N: Uh, I tried? Also, pardon OOC-ness, if any. Not good at writing. Not as familiar as I should be with each character's personas but bleh, who cares at 1 in the fother mucking morning!?**

**Also, can't wait to see what goes on and who I pair up. Oooo! (~^v^)~ **

**Some I will definetly have are Keyshipping, Anxietyshipping, Oldersiblingshipping, Gorgonicshipping, HellSharkshipping, and possibly MizaDoru because I need more of it in my life. I may also imply other ships for lols and stuff like Danger, Sky, Cattobingu, etc.**

**The reason this one will be (most likely) longer than the rest is because I will introduce (or at least vaguely mention) all the characters that will be in the story, some of their thoughts and overall random shit they do.**

**We all know they all can't have a normal, well, anything really.**

**The Best Bonding is Done by Camping**

**Chapter 1:** **Let the Trip Begin**

All 18 of them were in the dark forest, camping. Shadows danced along with the lights of the flames. Crickets were slightly chirping a nice melody and an occasional 'hoo' was heard from an owl not too far away.

This whole thing started when a certain ginger-haired male suggested that this would be a good idea to bond and spend some time in the great outdoors, even though he often complained about the outside most of the time.

Majority decided to opt out, with a few throwing rude, declining comments at him.

There was one, however, who agreed with the cheeky male. The Ice Queen, Rio. She was one, if not the most, influential person in the room at the time.

Even so, it took a bit more coaxing than it should have to finally get everyone to hop on board with the idea.

The next day, everyone each had packed bags and supplies to carry as they began their hike into the ocean of trees.

They got there early enough to set up the tents and even to set up a fire, which they did successfully.

After many failed attempts, of course as none of them had ever really gone camping before.

Now though, everyone so far was at least a little indulged in the outside world, especially a certain blue-haired boy. His hair and skin seemed to glow in the light of the fire and moon in the darkness. His heterochromatic eyes seemed to shimmer and glint as well...so beautiful.

"Yu...yum...ma...Yuma!?" The blue-haired boy raised his voice slightly to get the spaced out boy's attention.

"H-Huh?" the tan boy asked, his ruby eyes wide in surprise as he snapped back to his senses. Just now he had he realized he had been staring at the light-skinned boy this whole time.

This sudden realization caused him to turn away as he felt his cheeks begin to blush.

After a few moments of awkward silence, the gold and white eyed boy inquired, "Why were you staring at me so intently, Yuma?"

Before the black-haired boy could reply, he was interrupted by a teasing question from a figure in the shadows, "Yes. Why were you gawking and drooling at Astral, Yuma?" The figure approached from behind the best friends and was immediately identified as the blond dragon tamer, Mizael.

"W-Wha-!?" the tan boy stuttered but before he could deny the accusation, he was startled by someone suddenly grabbing his shoulders.

"Is Yuma-kun in lovey-dovey?" a familiar voice taunted.

Mizael then walked around the log Yuma and Astral were sitting on until he was between the fire and the tan boy.

The tan boy's captor let go of him and hopped over so that he was standing opposite of the blonde duelist. Now in full view, the identity was revealed to be, none other than,

"Vector!" shouted the blushing key bearer. He frowned as he decided to try and plead his case with the former prince and dragon tamer. "I am not!"

Unfortunately, he was only drowned out as the two continued to taunt and make weird kissing noises. After that, they followed up with an unnecessary outburst of laughter.

As this went on, the red and black-haired boy only blushed more furiously as he buried his face in his hands. The former Astral being tilted his head slightly, not quite seeing what the big deal was.

Didn't Yuma love him? He thought so. Was it a bad thing? He couldn't quite understand why Yuma was so embarrassed over the situation.

As the blue-haired boy thought deeply, the duo continued their taunts before a voice forced itself into the conversation.

"Since when did you guys become a pair?" questioned a cool voice that was directed at the teasing duo.

They both stopped laughing and immediately turned to gaze in the direction of the voice.

"What!?" they exclaimed simultaneously as they glared at the purple tentacle-haired male who dared to ask such a thing.

Both duelists continued to stare in angry confusion. Only moments later, Mizael was still gawking at male while the orange-haired boy turned to the dragon tamer and shoved him away as hard as he could.

Given little warning, the blonde lost his balance and fell into the arms of the unsuspecting bookworm, Durbe.

Durbe only sat, still in a state of shock while Mizael looked up, a faint blush forming on the blonde male's cheeks. Similar blushing formed on the pale cheeks of the gray-haired male while his eyes were wide in surprise.

"Hell no!" the former mad prince screamed then as he stormed away toward the tents to sleep...or possibly plot revenge against his rival-forever. Maybe even take out his anger by torturing the sleeping Alit and Gilag. Who knew.

Meanwhile, Mizael reacted first by making many awkward, failed attempts to return to a standing position. He eventually got to his feet and dusted himself off a bit before clearing his throat and returning to lean against the trees in the dark.

The green, gray and blue-haired females, Kotori, Cathy and Rio respectively, giggled silently at the scene that just occurred while the purple-haired male near them simply lowered his head and closed his eyes, not really caring but glad that the little incident allowed for silence to occur once again.

* * *

The oldest male in the group, V, shook his head in annoyance. His reckless brother, aka IV, rolled his eyes, trying to remember how he let himself get dragged all the way out here.

"Who wants s'mores?" asked the pink-haired Arclight brother, III, as he carried a tray of s'mores. Most chimed an immediate 'yes please' with a few hesitantly accepting the snack because no one could really decline the loving duelist.

Glancing at his younger brother, the half blonde Arclight realized again why he was here. His Chronomoly-obsessed sibling had insisted.

Although, he could have easily said no, he decided to go along, because III would put on a show. He knew the boy would first plead with his emerald puppy eyes, which worked from time to time, but if not, he would probably cry.

IV, whether he cared to admit it or not, would try as much as possible to keep from hurting the feelings of his younger, kind-hearted sibling.

The pink-haired male walked up to his blonde sibling and asked, "Would you like one?"

Holding out an already made s'more to his half blonde relative, III waited for his response.

IV wasn't familiar with the term 's'more' and didn't really know what it was or what it consisted of.

Although, it seemed to be oozing white and dark brown in the middle of two crackers.

From IV's side-vision, V was already halfway done eating one. Although it seemed he had dropped some on his shirt which he showed by frowning. The older Tsukumo sibling, Akari, simply laughed at the expression held by the older male while she mentioned 'how the stain would probably stick around for a couple of washes'.

Back to the s'more, IV was about ready to decline when his older sibling elbowed him in the shoulder harshly, while III didn't look, of course. Reluctantly, the maroon-eyed male took the warm item in his hand.

"Thanks," he mumbled.

"You're very welcome," the emerald-eyed sibling spoke as he smiled gleefully.

However, instead of leaving like IV expected, he stood there in front of his older brother, waiting for him to take a bite and see his reaction. He seemed almost nervous.

Hesitantly, the half blonde brother took a bite and chewed. It was warm and a bit sweet, but...good. The chocolate and marshmallow melted in his mouth, but the cracker added a somewhat salty crunchiness that made the piece of food very tasty.

The maroon-eyed teenager was halfway through the snack when he realized the pink-haired one male was still waiting for him to say something. It was delicious, but IV didn't want to sound too overjoyed by it, so he simply responded with,

"It's okay...Thanks."

A dazzling smile appeared on his younger sibling's face before he went to offer s'mores to the rest of the group that was still up.

* * *

The photon duelist sat in between his younger brother, Haruto, and the butterfly loving female, Droite.

The happy pink-haired male had already passed and handed them the tiny desserts each of them were now munching on.

Haruto was biting into it happily but was careful as to not make a mess. His older sibling and the purple-haired female took somewhat slow bites, enjoying the moment and the camp dessert. Even though the blonde-haired boy was trying his best to carefully eat the small treat, he managed to get quite a bit on his face, which resulted in his younger sibling's silent snickers. Not that Kaito really noticed as he then felt a soft material rub against his cheek. He turned to find the butterfly duelist wiping his face with a napkin.

"You got a bit on your face. You should be more careful like your brother," she said as she looked down to smile at the younger Tenjo before gazing back at Kaito.

The air around them seemed to stop as a small blush formed on the female's cheeks. The photon duelist didn't notice this however, but the butterfly duelist did notice the more obvious shade of red on the pale face that was Tenjo Kaito's.

Unsurprisingly, he turned away and muttered, "Whatever..."

* * *

**A/N: I didn't mean to write this but now it's here. I was inspired and took to the keyboard. Hope you enjoyed it. Considering this is my first fic and all. **

**I will update whenever I can. With school starting back up, it may or may not take a while, but **_**I will**_ **try to update. Don't even know how long I plan to make this. This started out as a little drabble but is forming into something more in my mind. **

**Oh, special thanks to TheScoundralCookie here on fanfiction for editing this for me at 2am. I quite appreciate it! Arigato!**

**Anyway...How does one end these?...**

'**Till next time~!**


	2. Chapter 2: Let's Get Situated

**A/N: First off, I want to thank the handful people that took the time to review chapter one and favorite this fic. Thanks. It means a lot. Especially considering this is my first fic and I didn't think anyone would even find it.**

**Thanks everyone.**

**Also, I have a few things to say….in the bottom A/N though so you guys won't have to hear me ramble up here. You came for the story.**

**Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter.**

**Oh yeah, I don't own Zexal or the characters, just the interactions and situations I put them through.**

**The Best Bonding is Done By Camping**

**Chapter 2:**** Let's Get Situated**

Everyone thought they had thought of everything. They brought food, tents, flashlights, everything you could possibly need for a camping trip.

Except, they didn't quite get around to discuss sleeping arrangements. Which is what they had all started doing about an hour ago. Rather, it wasn't discussing. More like arguing, and with everyone exhausted from almost an entire day out in the wilderness, sleep deprivation was quick to fan the flames and cloud their sense of calm reasoning.

"I should have my own tent! I shouldn't have to sleep with any of you!" the ginger exclaimed.

The blonde former Barian was quick to stomp out that idea, "Are none of us good enough for you or something?!"

"Wow Mizael, you really want to be in the same tent as Vector, don't you?" spoke the older Tenjo sibling.

"How dare you!" the Tachyon duelist shot back, a shade of red covering his face, not out of embarrassment, but out of pure anger at what was being implied.

Two of the younger girls weren't really getting into it. Kotori thought that her childhood friend had, at least somewhat, good judgment and maybe he could fix this situation. The green haired girl walked up to the dark haired boy and questioned, "Why don't you decide who sleeps with who so everyone else doesn't have to, Yuma?"

The cat girl, however, took it the wrong way in her state of lacking sleep and angrily shouted at Kotori, "You're not going to be in the same tent as Yuma!"

Brown eyes widened at the sudden attack and in an attempt to state that's not what she meant, Kotori and Cathy ended up arguing, along with everyone else.

"Does it really matter who sleeps in the same tent as someone else?" the confused former Astral being questioned the younger Tenjo sitting next to him.

"I guess it is for them. Although, I don't really think it does," Haruto replied as he bit into another s'more that he snatched from the small pile of treats that remained.

"I'm surprised Gilag and Alit are able to sleep with this much noise though," taking another bite he continued. "they must be really heavy sleepers."

The former Astral being could only nod in response.

While the arguments continued, Yuma attempted to quell his anger-filled and sleep deprived friends, but was mainly ignored or drowned out by how loud they were being. After trying for so long, and being tired himself, the tanned boy plopped down next to his best friend and sighed, "Maybe we should have thought this through a bit more."

"Thinking has never really been your forte, Yuma," teased his light skinned friend.

This caused the ruby eyed boy to shoot a him a glare and pout, "I can do plenty of thinking Astral!"

When looking at him pout in such a way the former Astral being couldn't help but soften his gaze and smirk as he replied, "Of course."

It wasn't too often that the heterochromatic boy smiled, let alone smile like that, which caused the tanned boy's cheeks to glow a shade of red as well as cause his chest tighten and give him an oddly pleasant feeling. Noticing the redness forming on the boy's cheeks, the cyan-haired boy leaned over and placed his forehead against that of his best friend's. If he recalled correctly, this is how people check if others had a fever.

"Your head seems warm. Are you alright Yuma? Are you sick?" he asked, concerned. The red on the boy's cheeks only seemed to grow as he remained in his position. Gold and white eyes stared into ruby red ones, waiting for an answer. However, the tan boy was so caught up in the moment he forgot how to speak. He eventually responded with a, "I-I'm fine! Perfectly okay! Never better!" as he chucked nervously.

Seemingly convinced by his companion's act, the lighter skinned boy returned to his proper sitting position on the log, "Very well. If you say so."

The tan duelist breathed a small sigh of relief as he tried to let the embarrassment fade, although he thought it would take him a while. Voices began to crawl their way into the young duelist's ear. He turned again to the camping group and realized that they were still fighting. In his moment with Astral he had completely forgotten about them and couldn't even hear them up until now. He was really able to drown them all out? Just because of Astral? Tan cheeks flushed slightly at this sudden realization but a quick shake of his head minimized the feeling, to some extent.

The carrot-haired male had noticed the huge arguement, then again, who couldn't have, and usually would jump at the chance to yell some witty quips at people. However, he didn't due to his exhaustion as well as the fact he had something else in mind. From where he stood, he noticed that his main rival, the male with tentacle hair, Naschu~, was in a pretty heated argument with IV. It looked like the former king was about to pop a blood vessel, fists clenched tightly at his sides. Maybe the carrot head could cause some more excitement and start an _actual_ fight. As sneaky as the ginger knew how, he snuck up behind a nearby tree. As intended, no one seemed to notice. Now, he had a clear view of Astral and Yuma sitting on their log with Kaito's little brother, sitting there as well but a bit away from the pair, enjoying his snatched s'mores. A little ways ahead of the log-sitting trio was the former Barian king. Perfect.

Not really coming up with a better plan, the amethyst-eyed male picked up a good sized rock he found near his feet and chucked it at the Kamishiro twin. The devious ginger boy wasn't sure what kind of chaos he expected to cause but what happened next was definitely not thought of.

As soon as the ginger male threw the rock, the former Astral being decided to stand up, which was a bad decision because when the rock hit the purple-haired male in the neck, his immediate reaction was to turn around and punch the daylights out of his assaulter. The thing was, the cyan-haired boy was passing behind the male Kamishiro in that moment which resulted in him getting punched on the cheek. The pale boy was hit with so much force that he stumbled backwards and over the log he was previously sitting on. When Astral hit the floor with the right side of his body, he could only hold up his left hand to his cheek, in what seemed like pain as he remained in his spot, speechless.

As soon as this occurred, the Tsukumo boy screamed, "Astral!" before hopping over the log and scrambling next to his best friend to check for any complications.

"Astral?! Are you okay?" the tan boy questioned, his tone full of concern.

The pale male remained on the ground for a moment longer as his mind tried to process what had just transpired. Once regaining his composure the cyan haired boy sat up shakily, still holding his now swelling cheek. The eyes of the two boys met as the hurt male's conveyed reassurance into the tan boy's worried gaze.

By this time everyone had stopped fighting and grew quiet when the Tsukumo boy first shouted. Everyone was looking either at each other, confused, or at the two boys on the floor. IV only stared at his indigo haired rival before he turned to the boys on the ground still unable to believe that he had just punched Astral! Ryouga could only stare in astonishment at the boy he had just hurt. He really didn't mean it but he was unable to think, much less speak.

Vector was just as shocked as everyone else. Although the tentacle head was currently making one one of the greatest faces the ginger has ever seen, and will probably never see again, he couldn't really take the victory this time. The carrot haired boy couldn't help but feel bad for causing the whole scenario. Mainly because the look of concern and pain in the face of the boy with red bangs just made him feel an overwhelming pain in his chest that refused to subside the more he stared. To remedy this the ginger male turned away and sunk into the dark shadow of the tree he was hiding behind in order to sort out this new pain as well as to not be noticed as the cause of this unfolding drama.

Moments after the action-filled scene, Astral sat back on the log, a pack of ice pressed against his cheek that his best friend gave him from the cooler. His cheek wasn't as swollen as it was before but it was still sore and the numbing ice helped. "Are you sure your alright Astral?" Yuma asked for the uptenth time sitting next to the boy with heterochromatic eyes. The former Astral being gave a small sigh and another reassuring smile before responding with, "Yes, Yuma. I told you already, I am fine now. Thank you for the ice."

"Of course! No problem!" the tan boy chirped, relieved that his companion wasn't hurt too badly.

Shark had already apologized a bit earlier saying that he was truly sorry and that he hadn't meant to hurt the pale boy in any way. The ruby eyed boy, of course, easily forgave the shark duelist because, like the blue eyed male claimed, it was an accident. Not wanting to blow up the situation more than it needed to be he simply took the young duelist's dismissal and left it at that. The tentacle haired male still couldn't quite understand how the tan male could forgive and move on so easily. Especially after Ryouga had just hurt the boy's best friend, even if it wasn't intentional. Yuma, he has always been something else. In all the best ways of course.

By now, everyone seemed to have calmed down significantly and were focused on how to set up the sleeping arrangements. They all began discussing in a more organized fashion compared to the way they were "conversing" earlier. Going over the number of people to a tent was no problem because there were 18 people and 10 tents, (an extra was packed just in case) which meant, 2 to a tent. Now, this was the hard part, figuring out who goes with who. At least one person had to be constantly watched by a responsible, sensible individual. Some couldn't possibly, or refused, to be separated while others would have rather dropped dead than sleep in the same tent with certain people in the group.

It took great deal of thought and very careful arranging but the pairs were finally decided.

The Kamishiro twins were to occupy a single tent, or at least, that was Ryouga's original intention, before IV claimed, "I'm with Ryouga." The purple haired male simply gaped at the Arclight for a moment while everyone seemed to agree. Using only his eyes, the shark duelist made it blatantly clear that he didn't trust Rio with any of the others, but the ice queen gave him a glare that said, "I can take care of myself". As much as he was against this his energy had been drained and arguing was not something he was up to at the moment. Especially after the incident with Astral so, he simply glared at the puppet duelist before storming into the magenta tent to finally get some rest. After which, the half blonde male soon followed with a smirk at the shark duelist's attitude. The next set to pair up was Haruto and Kaito. Over Kaito's dead body if anyone else was sharing a tent with his little brother and with that the siblings crawled into the blue tent. The redhead, on a joking whim, said that the cat girl and Durbe should go together because they both looked like cats. Even though it was meant as a joke the others seemed to think it wasn't a bad idea so Cathy and Durbe ended up occupying the dull gray tent.

It was obvious that Yuma and Astral were to sleep together because those two were inseparable, and so, they claimed the red tent. Akari and V, as boyfriend and girlfriend, were gonna share the golden orange tent. As the last two girls, Droite and Kotori decided to share the lavender one. Mizael and Vector utmostly, refused to be with each other and, even though it made V a bit uneasy, he would rather not have Vector with his youngest sibling. So, Mizael and III ended being paired up in the coral pink tent. Not realizing until the last moment, everyone was paired up except the last remaining two.

The ginger male smirked over at the female Kamishiro, and the ice queen simply returned the gesture with an exhausted expression. It was obvious that since they were the only pair remaining that they had to share the last bright blue tent. Eager to get some rest, the pair crawled into the remaining tent, and after establishing well enough space from one another, they attempted to finally get some sleep. Rio, however, took the liberty of sleeping in front of the entrance to the tent so that the little troublemaker didn't try leaving or anything while she slept. After all, he was her responsibility now that they were "tent-mates".

With everyone comfortably situated in their tents they all soon drifted off, hoping tomorrow would go just as well, or rather, even better than today.

**A/N: Continuing from the top, I would like to point out something I completely forgot to mention in the first chapter. I will be accepting suggestions because, again, I didn't start this with the intention of actually making it a fic. Suggestions would be appreciated so I can figure out where to go from here. I can't promise I'll use all of your ideas but I will do my best!**

**Also, I'm getting out of school for the year tomorrow so I will****, hopefully,**** have more time to actually post the many fics I have started/finished over the course of the school year. There may still be somewhat large gaps of time between chapters and for that I deeply apologize. I'm sorry I can't be consistent and post every week and such but it takes time to write (especially if you're not much of a writer, like me) and still have to deal with life outside of this wonderful world of fanfiction. I will be sure to update **_**as soon as I can**_**. Barian Promise!**

**Oh! There is something else that may take up even more of my time. You see, I'm also working on another fic, a collab, with TheScoundralCookie here on FF! It's called "The Thorny Tale of Three". You guys should check it out and leave a little review if you can, we both would love that. Not to mention, she is the inspiration for this fic and probably many more to come.**

**So, thanks to everyone reading, following, favoriting, and reviewing this story. I'll try to update soon. Hopefully the length of this chapter will make up for the gap between this chapter and the last.**

***cough***___**Also, gonna post a one-shot soon.**_** *cough* **

**P.S. Just because I shoved them in the same tent DOES NOT mean I ship them. Just to make it clear. No crack ships thank you. (- Liar. She ships Chris and Akari, DANGIT. -TheScoundrelCookie) True. Point taken. I lied. Okay, I don't ship **_**all **_**of them. **

'**Till next time~!**


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